The Bengaluru Police confirmed that Hegde was arrested for a social media post that was carried on March 18 claiming that a Jain monk got injured after being attacked by a Muslim youth. It was later known that the monk had been injured in a road accident.

The Jain muni was hit by a bike while he was walking on the road. He was not hit by Muslim youth as claimed by Hegde,” said the police official.

The online portal is known for creating fake news has been promoted by senior BJP leaders. Hegde’s twitter handle is also followed by PM Modi. Hegde, who goes by the handle @mvmeet on Twitter, has 7,78,000 followers

In fact, BJP MP Pratap Simha had on Thursday evening even tweeted about Hegde’s arrest calling it a “cowardly act” by the ruling Congress. BJP MLA and General Secretary of Karnataka BJP CT Ravi tweeted, hailing Mahesh Hegde a nationalist, and "wondering" Mahesh Hegde was arrested because "he ran a successful campaign to raise funds for the children of two Hindu schools run by RSS"